I am totally torn. We had a trip in Dec 2020 that was cancelled due to covid. We are currently booked for mid-September 2021. I have always wanted to go to Disney during Christmas time, however we prefer the smaller crowds of September. With crowds and long waits without FP+, no meet and greets, I’m getting nervous. I have amazing adrs already made for our September trip. I know crowds are usually worse in December, and add the 50th anniversary, is the general consensus that it will be bananas? Wondering if I should just hope to go Dec 2022 and keep September trip? Or are the limited offerings plus covid revenge travel crowds of September not worth the ridiculous amount of money I’m paying? I know that’s a personal preference type question I can only answer for myself. Just looking to see if someone else’s crystal ball isn’t has hazy as mine?!
You could check to see how many hotel vacancies there are – that might inform your guesstimate about crowd levels in December.
I suspect mid-September will be low-ish crowds - much better than right now. It will be right after school starts (less vacationers), right before the 50th (many will be pushing their trips till after the festivities start), and there is still some dampening from Covid.
Early December will probably be good though. You have to hit between the Thanksgiving rush and the Christmas rush, so make sure you choose dates that are firmly out of holiday territory. But as a reward, the temperatures will be nicer (though potentially too cold for swimming), less chance of hurricanes and afternoon rain (but the rainstorms that do come could be more long lasting), plus all the new offerings (Ratatouille, early mornings, 50th festivities) will still be around. Potentially the 50th crowds will still be around, but probably about the same as mid-September.
So you could do either, just depending on which factors weigh more heavily for you.
The thing to remember about this September is that this is about the last reschedule time for folks who bought 4-park magic tickets in early 2020 (pre-pandemic becoming a reality) to reschedule to, as those tickets will all expire 1 year from original travel dates. So you’re looking at everyone who would normally be here in September PLUS all those reschedules from last year using up their tickets before they expire.
So I think it will definitely be a busier September than usual.
I am in that bucket of people having to use up my ticket in September, hence why our trip is booked then. If I had the option of changing without losing money, I’d have changed to early November, likely. Better weather, less chance of a hurricane (it’s supposed to be a busier than usual hurricane season), Extra Magic Hours will have started, being past the current Delta wave in Florida (hopefully), Remy’s will be open, possibly Space 220 will be open, more time for other stuff to reopen, etc. If you have the flexibility, that def seems like the better option to me.
I’ve requested a quote for the first week in Dec. Nov 28-dec 4. We will see what that looks like.
Thanks everyone!!! So grateful to have this group!
Two trips is always better than one.
I think you could go in December (if you can get a room) but you’ll just have to really focus in on a handful of things that you really want to do, be prepared for insane crowds, and generally manage your expectations.
Expired tickets aren’t “really” expired. You can apply the value of those tickets to the purchase of new tickets as long as they are entirely unused. It just means you may have to pay the difference in the value of the tickets.
@Jdennis8, early December (meaning, the first two weeks) are still pretty low crowds, historically…and with park reservation systems in place, there probably won’t be too noticeable difference between the time periods.
True, but a) I don’t think a lot of people realize that, so many people are still trying to use up their tickets by September because that’s what’s printed on them as an expiration date and b) compared to the 4-park Magic tickets they had on sale in early 2020, it’s a pretty SUBSTANTIAL difference in ticket prices:
My 4-park Magic ticket (bought through Undercover Tourist in early Jan 2020 before the ticket increase) ran me $336.87/person, including tax. A 4-day base ticket from Undercover Tourist now runs $421.88/per person. For me and the hubby, that’s $170 more to change the dates…easily enough to cover a few of our meals.
In theory, they are supposed to attribute you the value of the ticket to the new ticket, not the price you paid. So if you have a 5-day PH that you bought in 2012, in theory you should be able to get a 5-day PH that is valid in 2021 for no additional cost. But in practice, sometimes people are charged the difference in price paid, especially if the tickets are a special ticket type that no longer exists. Not sure where the 4-park Magic tickets fall.
Correct. We were told these were not directly exchangeable, but were a special time limited promotion. So, September it is!
So if I purchase 4 day PH tickets for a specific date and decide to change my trip I can just exchange them for new dates if I don’t use any?
Yes…although, if the days you change to are more expensive than the days you originally booked for, you have to pay the difference. Not the difference on what you paid, but the difference in the costs of those days. So, let’s say you bought the tickets for Date X for $300. Then you decide to change to Date Y. If 4 Day PH tickets for Date X now cost $315, and for Date Y now cost $345, you should only have to pay $30…NOT $45.
We have our trip scheduled for Sept. 11 through Sept 20 because our tickets expire on Sept 26. We can’t roll the value of multiple tickets over into new tickets because we used one day of the 6 day park hopper tickets in January of 2020.When our kids were little, we took them out of school for a week in September every year (with their school’s blessing) for our trip to Disney. It was hot, but the lines were really short and I mastered the fast pass. I am still considering cancelling our trip and just losing the value of the 5 days left on our tickets. I just don’t enjoy standing in long lines and without fast pass, I am worried that it would just be a miserable trip standing in long lines.
It seems like that week is popular. That is when our trip is. We were going to go the week before that but didn’t because of fear of Labor Day crowds. We shall see. I am trying to mentally prepare for crowds and heat but I’m also hoping to get so much done.
That’s when I’m there too. I definitely think it will be crowded.
It is a very busy week indeed. I found almost nil availability when I was searching at one point. Only the most expensive deluxe options were left then.
That could be different now with the other resorts open.
maybe they will have fastpass by then. We will make the best of it. See you all in the #sacredspaces.
BTW are there more than 2? I saw a post about one near sleepy hollow and I think one near pinnochio. Are there other ones?
I’m sorry. I lost the thread somehow LOL
More than 2? More than 2 what?